


Lacuna

by unavoidablekoishi



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, Gen, Post-Calamity Ganon, Reflection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:35:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26366551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unavoidablekoishi/pseuds/unavoidablekoishi
Summary: The rain spewed from the Divine Beast lasts for a very long time.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 28





	Lacuna

The Divine Beast Vah Ruta takes on the form of a solid and immovable creature that no longer graces the lush lands of Hyrule- a testament to its age and the knowledge of its creators that has now been lost to the void. Vah Ruta is undeniably one of a kind and will continue to be so until it crumbles away alongside the land. Its fate aligns itself with that of the kingdom.

For Mipha, Vah Ruta is a stepping stone, yet simultaneously a void of its own. It’s empty walls, once flooded with the murky waters found only at the very depths of the East Lake Reservoir, does not function as a home nor even as a temporary solution. It had been a vessel once and perhaps will be, in the distant future, to a being that can resonate with the will of Vah Ruta that sleeps just beneath the stone. However, it is not a vessel to a spirit.

It’s a void- and the haunting darkness that plagues the Divine Beast makes it more so. Hard to see, at first- the dregs of the calamity that stain the interior of Vah Ruta are an appalling sight to Mipha, however it does not turn her blood as cold as the slow, dark pulse that she can feel crawling over her spirit. There is no real sense of touch after death, nor is there actual blood to turn cold. It is only feeling and, even then, she wonders if it can be trusted at all. Nonetheless, that sickening pulsating serves as an unwelcome reminder that, unlike her, the darkness is still very much alive.

Vah Ruta, by contrast, had been a light feeling. Not quite a spirit but something to the effect, that resided within the enormous, hollow shell of a creature long gone. There was no speaking with it, unless a one-sided conversation was desired. There was no seeing it. There was no being it. Ruta was neither alive nor dead and yet nothing in between. Though there was no real answer to the question, Mipha had decided that Ruta was a feeling. Perhaps, she ponders, that that may be why they could bond together so.

Vah Ruta was light. She was timid. She was rooted to the ground yet free in her own manner. She was a feeling of knowledge, though there was no telling if Ruta could possess such a thing. She was a companion to Mipha, though there were no words to share. Mipha doesn’t think words could’ve ever formed the connection they’d had. 

Which is why her heart hurts, knowing that Vah Ruta had played the part of an inescapable void to her. It had been a prison. It had sealed her within its walls with no hope of seeing the light and, though Mipha knows this is through no fault of her own, she still grows weary at the thought of it. Though, that’s not to say Ruta hadn’t had her fair share of confinement. 

Prior to their introduction to one another, Vah Ruta had merely been another rock at the bottom of the lake. Flooded with the same inky-black, muddy water that Mipha had grown so tired of- the water had always looked so clear from the surface. 10,000 years is what Mipha had learnt. 10,000 years ago, Vah Ruta had not been just a nameless husk, sleeping in the inescapable depths of the waters Mipha had called home. 10,000 years ago, Vah Ruta had been a vessel.

Only 9,900 years left on the clock, is what Mipha thinks, bitterly. 

The waters of Hyrule are the homes of the Zora but never have these waters felt so suffocating. For a spirit though, it was only a feeling. She could not die again.

However, when the inner mechanics of Vah Ruta begin to churn under the influence of the darkness, causing the now awakened Divine Beast to rise from the waters, Mipha cannot help but feel selfish, knowing how deep her desire is to ascend from the abyss. It’s not freedom, but it’s something.

The rain spewed from the Divine Beast lasts for a very long time. 

There are only so many thoughts to think so, when Mipha finally finishes pondering the sudden, unexpected movements of Vah Ruta and what this could mean for her home, she’s only left with the silly, inconsequential ones. What in the world was this function for? A harsh jet of water streaming from Ruta’s nose had hardly been a requirement for her. How long would it take for Ruta to finally drain the entire reservoir? Since the rain cascaded around them, there’s a chance that may never happen but Mipha would like to entertain the thought of seeing the waters she’d lingered in for so long dry up. Would it feel familiar? 

Would it hurt like it did before? 

There’s no point in her berating herself for her lack of ability to solve this problem. That particular strain of emotional venom had passed by about fifty years ago. For now, all she can do is exist and watch the haze of torrential rain that surrounds them.

It really beats hard upon their home though, from where she is, she can hardly see it. The rain is so fierce and water is usually so gentle where they are. It doesn’t...feel like home. In fact, enveloped in this shroud of water- rain made of the droplets of her old void have only begun to create a new one.

9,900 years left.

9,900 more years of...existing. Mipha is dead, without a doubt, but she can’t say for certain that she’s passed on. She can’t even assume she ever will. 9,900 had been the age of Ruta’s struggle but not the end of Mipha’s sentence and now everything is murky. As dark as those waters of captivity had been- her entire domain has been painted that horrendous shade.

She thinks of her dear brother. She thinks of her father. She thinks of Link, of the princess, of the elders, of the Champions…

She wonders what this kind of misery feels like in the sky, or the desert, or the mountains. 

Perhaps the harsh and unforgiving clouds of sand had obscured everything the way the water had- and sand is gritty and troublesome. It pricks at the eyes and irritates the nose with no way to alleviate the agitation until safety is found.

Or, perhaps the fires of the mountains had burned and boiled, even through an ethereal form. The heat is menacing. It’s stifling. It pulses through the skin and deep inside, sapping at strength, and there’s no way to leave it behind other than to escape it completely.

Perhaps even the cold, bitter winds of the skies had frozen everything right down to the blood. Fending off such a chill is futile and the shivers wrack the body like an earthquake, exacerbating the ice-like pain that needles at every sense of the body. It cannot be relieved without aid.

Truly, she cannot imagine they have it better than she does.

That’s why it takes all of her heart and soul not to plead with the hero that intrudes on this shell- would you free the others? Perhaps it is too much of a burden to bear but she would not wish this upon anybody. She is desperate to relieve them of this agony.

There’s a lot she struggles with when that familiar blonde boy arrives. The screeching movement of Vah Ruta’s offensive mechanics had not passed her by, but she had grown tired of witnessing the attempts to pacify the Divine Beast. Supporting the side with no foreseeable victory is heartbreaking. She may not have a heart anymore but even a spirit has a limit.

She watches him as he moves around the Divine Beast and the feelings it provides are indescribable. There really is no pleasure without pain, here. She’s longed to see him but his appearance only implies his decision to tackle the blight that had slaughtered her and plagued her companion 100 years ago. She does not want him to fall by the same menace. She also does not want to remain trapped within this infested beast. 

She doesn’t tell him anything more than what he needs to know, despite how desperately her heart is singing out in ragged cries that only she will ever be able to hear. If only he could hear this awful cacophony. Water is meant to be a pleasant melody, a sound of serenity, but the sounds of her heart's desire to spill the grief and loneliness that had flooded this beast for 100 years sounds like nothing more than rainfall.

Would he even notice, through the downpour that plagued their land?

So she remains quiet until finally...the rain stops.

The silence is bittersweet. It’s another small slice of freedom but who knows when the next void will take them both. She dreads the next abyss, whatever it may take the form of.

However, she has a role to fulfill now. One that she’s keen to assume 100 years after it had resulted in her demise. She is not a vengeful person but the sensations of her beloved home had been nothing but methods of torture for such an unforgivable amount of time. Darkness had to be eradicated so that light may prevail. Perhaps she, too, will finally be able to grasp the light that death had promised her so long ago.

She apologises to Ruta for the wait. It would not be long now until they could finally fulfill the task given to them. It had been selfishly late but it was better than never. 

Mipha wonders what it must be like to be Vah Ruta. To exist for the sole purpose of protection- for the sole purpose to fight. Ruta could not bide her time in any way other than to sleep and, somehow, Mipha feels as if she knows somebody like this, too.

She apologises to them both, whether they hear it or not.

To her father, as well. It’s easy to speak of understanding but she has resigned herself to understanding that she will never know of the pain her father had suffered with after her death. Her brother, too. He’d been so young. Too young to lose her. It prompts her to wonder just what would’ve happened if she’d turned down the role of the Zora Champion? The possibilities are endless and she’s considered them all over her time spent here.

Vah Ruta sits atop the mountain that overlooks the rest of Hyrule- she’s concentrating now, setting her sights firmly upon the black shroud of darkness to taint the castle. The harsh light of the beam pierces through this haze and Mipha silently edges her to make it sting. There was no room for failure, now. They’d already made the mistake of considering defeat- she would not fall to that once more. 

She doesn’t want to sink again.

Over on the other side of the mountain is Zora’s Domain. It’s tucked away cozily within one of the many valleys that adorn Lanayru’s landscape. The rain terrorises it no longer. It’s back in the safe hands of the light and Mipha can only see herself in the position of the enemy here, having caused such a calamity. She was hardly a Champion anymore, anyway. Her position in the world as it stands is a vague one. 

However, when her eyes carefully focus over the distant sight of the domain, she remembers that Champion, blight, alive or dead, she will always be a daughter and a sister. 

He’d...grown so much over the past 100 years.

His skin is still a deep, royal red like her own, sparkling with the ornamental jewellery they both wore, and she longs to see for herself the eyes of the man he’s become. He would’ve surpassed her in age by now. Curious to see the younger brother become the oldest but it’s all Mipha ever wanted- for him to grow. He’s so tall now, too. She can hardly believe her eyes and they prickle slightly when she squints, desperate to take in as much detail as she can, however it just isn’t enough.

He cannot see her from where he is and he most likely never will, either. 

It’s a strange sensation for her to feel those suffocating droplets that stain her cheeks and drip down her chin. The rain that had plagued her home, her family, and had shrouded her for so long in the water she’d rotted in had never really stopped.


End file.
